Time switch



Sept. 11, 1923. 1,467,444

J. METTLER TIME SWITCH Filed s t'. e. 1922 II- E'] 4 gg I 4 I I r 4 I I a I E I z 2 I z 4 5 4 I I I I lIIIIllIlIIlllllllllllllllllllllw m n 11lllllllllllllllllllllllll Patented Sept. 11, 1923.

UNITED STATES 1,467,444 PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEF METTLER, OF ZUG, SWITZERLAND, ASSIGNOR TO LANDIS & GYR AEG. OF ZUG,

SWITZERLAND. I

TIME swrron.

Application filed September 6, 1922. Serial No. 586,496.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, Josnr METTLER, a citi- Zen of the Swiss Confederation, residing at Zug, in the Cantonof Zug, Switzerland,

have made a new and useful invention relating to Time Switches, of whichthe following is a full, clear and exact description.

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages of such time switches in which the entire force necessary for the switching in and out is taken from the clockwork driving the dial at the moment when the switching takes place. This is very disadvantageous, since the regular going of the clockwork is seriously affected. Arrangements by means of which the necessary mechanical force for the operation of the switch may be stored during the time that the switch runs light have already been suggested in order to get over this diiiiculty.

VVith such arrangements. however, the storage of the force takes place only intermittently: that is to say, the clockwork is only required to store force from time to time, and thus the unequal loading of the clockwork is not entirely done away with. Also the switching times are in this case dependcut on the arrangement of the means for the storage of the force, and a certain time is required to eiii'ect the necessary storagei. e.

it is not possible to choose the switchingtimes at will. nor as close to one another as may be desired. The same applies. to a large extent. to arrangements in which the switch is required to pass through the final switching position without stopping, should the switchiugs on and off coincide. and in which a spring is employed for the storage of the necessary energy. This spring is fixed at both ends and niust be somewhat weak. so as to allow of a 360 rotation of the dial without fear oi the spring breaking. As a result the operation becomes unreliable if two switching operations follow one another closely. since the force stored is Very small and may be insuilicient to operate the switch drum used with this arrangement.

The present inventionrelates solely to a time-switch of the type in which/the necessary'iorce for the operation of the switching mechanism is stored up during the period when the clockwork of the switch runs light; this time-switch has, however, certain advantages in comparison with other known time-switches.

rigidly mounted on the sleeve 3'.

23 and 24;.

tion, some of the parts at the top leit'hand corner of the drawing being shown in section. Fig. 2 is a sideelevation,one part of which is cut along'the line 11-11 of Fig. 1.

4 Figure 3 is a detail side elevation.

Figure 4 is a detail plan partly in section. The dial 1. which may be marked OK in twenty-four hours, is fitted with control levers 2. The dial is fitted with a sleeve 3 by means of which it is mounted on the fixed arbor 3, a toothed wheel 4 being This toothed wheel 4 is driven from the clock work 5 through the toothed wheel 5.and meshes with a second toothed wheel 6. The toothed wheel 6 is loosely mounted on a spindle 7, 011 which ahub'8 and a' toothed wheel 10 forming part of a multiple armed ratchet member 9are rigidly mounted. The toothed wheel 10 gearswith a toothed wheel 11 with which a rod 13 is connected bymeans of a crank pin 12. The rod 13 is connected to the lever 14 which is carried in bearings mounted on an insulating plate 15, and acts on the contact springs 16. These contact springs 16, together with the solid contacts 17. form the switching mechanism of the time-switch. One end of the spiral springlS is bent up and attached to the toothed wheel 6. This spring 18 is coiled round. the spindle 7. with a suiiiciency of play between it and the spindle. and the other end of the spring is tightly coiled about a cylindrical portion oi the hub'8. A conical part of the hub 8, which forms a continuation of the'cylindris cal part leads the spiral springlS on to the cylindrical part and prevents the coils of the spring from suddenly slipping or bind ing on the hub 8. The spindles 19 and 20 form locking and tripping members respectively. and are coupled togetherby means of the toothed segments 21. On each of these spindles 19 and 20 is cut a flat 22, these flats lying in the plane of the ratchet. member 9 and Working in conjunction with same. The spindle l9is provided with striker arms As has already been mentionedpthe dial 1 is put in motion by the clockwork 5 of the time switch through thetoothed wheel 5. and the scale marked onsame passes under afixed pointer 1 mounted on the fixed arbor 3. As a result the toothed wheel (5 is turned and the spiral spring 18 tends to turn the spindle 7 with it. Since, however, one arm of the ratchet member now rests against the circmi'iference of one of the spindles 19, 20,-against spindle 19 for example (see Fig. 1)-the turning of the spindle 7 is prevented, and the spring 18 becomes more and more tightly wound, until, finally, the tension overcomes the friction between the spring and the hub S and. the spring slips on the latter. During this stage the switch mechanism 16, 17 is in the on position. In the course of the rotation of the dial plate 1 the next control lever comes into contact with the striker arm 2% by means of the operating pin 25, and the striker arm, and with it the spindle 19, is thus turned. As the spindle 19 turns, the arm of the ratchet member 9 slips off the circumference of the spindle 19 and, under the action of the spiral spring, passes by the flat 22 on the spindle. In the meantime the spindle 20 whose flat 22 before commencement of the rotation lay in such. a position as to allow the arms of the ratchet member 9 to pass freely, has now been turned by means of the geared segments 21, so that its circumference now lies in the path of the arms of the ratchet member 9, so that the arm which has been released by the spindle 19 is now arrested by the spindle 20, and the rotation of the spindle 7 is limited to a partial. turn. During this rotation of the spindle 7 the rod 13 moves up wards, thus bringing the switch mechai'iism 1G, 17 into opposite position, i. e. into its off position.

Upon further rotation of the dial, during which the spring 18 is once more wound up, the next control. lever 2 comes into contact with the striker arms 23 by means of the operating pin and. thereby returns the spindles 19,20 to their original positions, wl'iereupon the spindle 2O releases the arrested arm of the ratchet member 9, and the spindle 19 arrests the following arm.

Instead of the multiple arm ratchet member and two tri iming spindles the arrangement shown in Fig. 3 might be emplovcd, whereby a one armed. locking mcmlwr f) is mounted on a spindle 7 to which attached. the moving part 26 of the switch mechanism 26, 30 of the time-switch. The spring 18' resembles in its winding and a rangement the spring 19 described in the first form of the invention. The spindle 27 car .ries striker arms 23 and. 24; and is provided with two flats 28 and 29. The end of the locking member 9 is bent and works in conjunction with the flats 28 and 29, and the locking member 9 is arrested by the circumference of the spindle 27 and is released alternately by the flats 28 and 29. The striker arms 23 and 24 work with the bent arms of the control levers 2 mounted on the dial. A pin 32 passing tl'irough between the striker arms 23 and 2 1 forms a stop which limits the rotation of the spindle 27 in either direction.

In all the forms of the invention hereinbefore described the spiral spring 18 (respectively 1.8) is driven by the clockwork in the opposite sense to that in which it is coiled, since, otherwise, it might bind on the hub 8 (respectively 8) and break. In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 4: the friction end of the spiral spring 18 is arranged in a sleeve 31, which. for the reason mentioned has a conical and a cylindrical internal surface as bearing surface for the spiral spring 18. The spiral spring 18 is driven by the clockwork (not shown in the illustration) in the sense in which the spring is coiled.

In all three forms of the invention a switch drum could be employed as switching device.

Time switches in accordance with the invention have the advantage that the switching operations may be set for any desired time, and may be arranged to follow one another as closely as may be desired, there being always sufiicient force to ensure a reliable operation of the switch.

What I claim is 1. A. time switch having means whereby the necessary force for the operation of the switching umc-hanism is stored during the time that the clockwork which actuatcs the release of the mechanism (mere-ting the switch is running light, these m ans consisting of a spring and a friction couplii'ig connecting the clockwork with a tripping mechanism controlling the switch mechanism.

A time switch with a spring and a friction coupling, whereby the spring serves to operate the switching mechanism and positively coupled with the clockwork at one end. whilst at the other end it slips on a member with which it forms the friction coupling, the said member being positively coupled to a tripping mcclumism which controls the switching mechanism of the time switch.

3. A. time switch. with a spring and a friction cmipling. the spring being spiral in form and serving to operate the switching mechanism, the said spring being positively coupled. at one end with the clockwork and slipping at the other end on a member together with which the said spring forms the friction coupling, the above mentioned member being positively coupled, to a tripping mechanism which controls the switching mechanism of the time switch.

4. A time switch with a spiral spring connected at one end with the clockwork of connected at one end with the clockwork of' the time-switch, and with a friction coupling formed by the slipping of the other end of the spring on a member, this memher being rigidly mounted, together with one part of a locking and tripping gear, on a spindle, a further part of the looking and tripping gear being provided with striker arms working in conjunction with operating pins on the dial of the time switch.

6. A time switch with a spiral spring connected at one end to the clockwork of the time-switch and with a friction coupling formed by the slipping of the other end of the spring on a member, the said member being rigidly mounted, together with one part of a locking and tripping gear, on a spindle, whereby an arm forming part of the locking and tripping gear works in conjunction with a flat on the spindle, there being striker arms connected to this spindle, these arms working in conjunction with operating pins on the dial of the timeswitch.

7. A time-switch with a spiral spring connected at one end to the clockwork of the time switch, and with a friction coupling formed by the slipping of the other end of the spring on a' hub, the said hub having a cylindrical and a conical bearing surface for the spring and being rigidly mounted on a spindle on which is also rigidly mounted one member of a tripping mechanism controlling the switching mechanism of the time-switch.

8. A time switch with a spiral spring connected at one end to the clockwork of the time-switch and with a friction coupling formed by the slipping of the other end of the spring on a hub, this hub being rigidly mounted-on a spindle together with a multiple arm member of a tripping gear con trolling the switching mechanism of the time-switch, whereby the said multiple arm member works in conjunction with two spindles, each of which is provided with a flat, these spindles forming locking and tripping members of the tripping gear and being so arranged in connection with one another that one of them always comes into its looking position before the other has reached its tripping position, whereby one of the afore said spindles carries striker arms which work in conjunction with operating pins on the dial of the time switch.

9. A time-switch with a spiral spring connected at one end to the clockwork of the time switch, and with a friction coupling formed by the slipping of the other end of the spring on a hub, the said hub being rigidly mounted on a spindle together with a multiple arm member of a tripping gear controlling the switching mechanism of the time-switch, the said multiple arm member working together with two spindles,

each of which has a flat and which together form a locking and tripping gear, being so coupled together by means of toothed segments that one of them always comes into its locking position before the other reaches its tripping position, whereby one of the aforesaid spindles carries striker arms which work in conjunction with operating pins on the dial of the time-switch.

10. A time-switch with a spring and a friction coupling, these parts serving to connect the clockwork of the time switch with a tripping gear controlling the switching mechanism of the time-switch, whereby the said switchin mechanism is in the form of a lmife-switch connected by means of a connecting-rod and toothed wheels to a multiple arm member, this member being mounted on a spindle on which the friction coupling acts and working in conjunction with two spindles each of which has a flat, these spindles forming locking and tripping members of the tripping gear, and being so coupled together that one of them always comes into its locking position before the other reaches its tripping position, whereby one of the said spindles carries striker arms which work in conjunction with operating pins on the dial of the time-switch.

In witness whereof I affix my signature.

JOSE'F METTLER.

\Vitnesses F. HEINE, AUGUsr QUIGG. 

